Teen killed by cop was subdued by Taser, arrested day before

Updated 5:03 pm, Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Oscar Herrera, the Dublin teenager who was fatally shot by a police officer Sunday, had been subdued with a Taser and arrested a day earlier in Livermore after a fight with a friend, who said Tuesday that Herrera had screamed that he was the Messiah and threatened to eat him.

But Herrera, 18, managed to avoid being jailed in connection with the altercation that left him and his friend, 20-year-old Nate Maratea, bloodied. After he returned home, Herrera's behavior prompted a family member to call Dublin police, and he was shot dead when he allegedly attacked a responding officer with a baseball bat.

In an interview, Maratea said that even though he was attacked by his friend - whom police believe may have been high on methamphetamine - he didn't believe Herrera should have been shot.

"I'm really upset that they had to use their handguns," he said. "When I called the cops out here in Livermore, saying he was trying to eat me, they all used their Tasers. They knew what they were doing. And in Dublin, a cop pulls out a gun and starts shooting him multiple times?"

Latest news videos

Dublin police said the officer had no choice but to open fire when Herrera, a student at Foothill High in Pleasanton, began attacking him with a metal bat.

The officer, whose name was withheld, is on routine paid leave pending investigations by police and the Alameda County district attorney's office. Police are awaiting the results of toxicology tests.

The series of incidents began about 4 p.m. Saturday when Herrera, after taking drugs, got into a fight with Maratea near his home in Livermore, police said.

Maratea said Herrera clawed at him and reached into his mouth and nose while "screaming he was the Messiah, Jesus is fake and that since he's the Messiah, he can't die."

Herrera also said, "I'll kill you right now. I'll f- eat you," according to Maratea, who summoned police.

Herrera allegedly charged at officers, who used a Taser to subdue him before arresting him for trying to attack officers and threatening to kill them.

Officers took him to a hospital, where they were told he would be sedated in the intensive care unit and admitted for a couple of days, said Officer Steve Goard, a Livermore police spokesman.

At the hospital, Herrera was released from police custody on the grounds that he needed medical care and no officers were hurt, Goard said. The case would have still been reviewed by prosecutors, Goard said.

"It was clear that his drug use and the injury he had suffered prior to our arrival were so severe that his medical condition and his livelihood trumped whatever crimes we were investigating," Goard said. "We didn't really care about that, we cared that he doesn't die."

But after waking up from sedation, Herrera left the hospital Sunday against medical advice and asked his mother to pick him up, authorities said.

Dublin police were then summoned to the family's condominium on Dublin Meadows Street that evening after Herrera's sister reported that he was attacking their mother, police said.

Latest from the SFGATE homepage:

Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page.